In modern warfare one of the hazards encountered is nuclear, biological or chemical contamination of the battlefield. This has motivated research into the use of robotic military vehicles to perform such tasks as surveillance, environmental testing or even fighting in potentially contaminated areas. In addition, research has been done in the use of robotic vehicles to perform such inherently dangerous military tasks as clearing mine fields.
A number of systems by which a control center communicates with and governs robotic vehicles have been developed in recent years. The hardware, software and data transmission format of any one of these systems is typically incompatible with any of the other systems. This incompatibility increases the risk that the operation of different vehicles can not be coordinated. Further, there is a duplication of effort in the design and upgrading of these communication systems.